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> Results: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Scroll down for our Kid Factor. The ESRB Says Blood: GamerDad saw blood some spatter as he dispatched enemies. Drug Reference: There is mention of drugs in a new cutscene. Fantasy Violence: The game is all about wiping out your enemies on the battlefield. Mild Suggestive Themes: There is some minor flirting in new cutscenes. If you played Final Fantasy Tactics on the Playstation, there is really no reason to get this updated port. Oh, except for the all-new CGI cutscenes, and the new translation of the dialogue and text. Yes, and the extra areas you can find and new jobs such as the legendary Onion Knight, and of course the characters you can find by fully exploring areas. In other words - this is *not* just another lazy port, nor even a lackluster port like the Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II ports from earlier this year. Everything from the original game has been preserved, and the technical realization of a ten year old game on a modern handheld works very nicely from load times to controls to graphics. Unfortunately, many of the additions don't flow comfortably, and too many games in the past decade have figured out how to reduce some of the complexity while still delivering considerable depth, leaving this feeling overly-complicated and dated ... but still a solid strategy game. The original Final Fantasy Tactics had an excellent story of political intrigue, featuring twists and turns and betrayals and more. With the updated translation and added scenes you can follow things more closely than before. But this game lives and dies on the battlefield - and the combat and class systems are deep and still hold up well. All job classes start as a Squire or Chemist, and progress as you gain levels. Of course, you will have to gain considerable levels to become a powerful Onion Knight, but you have twenty-two possible jobs to master. The turn-based combat system has plenty of depth and options, including units having a few turns to be revived before they die permanently. You have to deal with terrain issues, weather issues, and other factors in addition to the typical rock-paper-scissors unit effectiveness ratings. The core strategy game is consistent with the one that wowed Playstation owners a decade ago and set a milestone in terms of console strategy games. However, the game looks, feels and plays like a ten year old game despite the new content. The result is a game that feels like it has been dressed up nicely and even gotten a new suit, but is at its core a decade old game that isn't all that well suited to the PSP in that state. And that is the main source of the disappointment - some areas feel nicely updated, but they represent less than 1% of the play time of the game. You will spend 95% of your time battling a dated interface and struggling with a system that was neither designed nor optimized for handheld gaming. Making it worse is the recent release of Jeanne D'Arc and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, two games that show how a game can be deep and difficult to master while simultaneously being accessible and friendly for gaming on the go.  
Final Fantasy Tactics gains a T rating and a 14+ GamerDad Age Seal based mainly on the stuff that happens in cutscenes, and particularly from the new cutscenes. Those add more weight to the already serious story behind the game, as well as some more teen-oriented flirting, blood and language. Yet at it's core this is a game that I have no problem with my kids playing at 9 and 11 - it is basically a deep and solid strategy game. More than other games in the genre there is significant reading and interpretation of acronyms required - this is not the friendliest interface, so I would recommend it to budding grognards (such as my older son) as well as those with experience in other strategy games. The complexity, tied with the new 'teen oriented' elements, earn it a 14+ GamerDad Age Seal.
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